


Timeless Wonder

by orphan_account



Category: Captain America (Comics), Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Artist Steve Rogers, Captain America: Man Out of Time, Getting Together, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-25 08:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3803272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Come on, man, indoorsy types like you don't just up and decide to hike the Grand Canyon. There's <em>gotta</em> be a story there.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Hey, aren't you Steve Rogers?”  
  
Steve could practically feel himself pale under his sunburn.  
  
“Oh god, please tell me you aren't out here looking for me.”  
  
The park ranger grinned. Like Steve, he had a splash of sun-induced freckles across his nose and cheeks. _Unlike_ Steve, he also had a nice glowy summer tan to go with them. He was gorgeous, and Steve honestly hoped he wasn't the object of a search and rescue operation initiated by his paranoid friends. If that was the case, he was going to have to jump off a cliff to spare himself the more painful death of melting out of sheer embarrassment. _That_ would show those nosy assholes that he could take care of himself.  
  
“Nah, man, I'm a fan. Saw you at Comic Con last year.” The ranger's pretty brown eyes narrowed at him suspiciously. “Why, are you lost?”  
  
“Um, I don't think so? We're on South Kaibab, right?”  
  
“That we are.” The attractive grin was back, and wow, Steve really needed him to stop doing that, like, _yesterday_. “Is there anything I can help you with? You doing okay on water? How about the heat? You look a bit flushed.”  
  
_No kidding_ , Steve thought, and attempted to school his expression into something resembling casual.  
  
“I'm a Brooklyn-dwelling artist with Irish genes. That's basically a step away from a full-fledged vampire. Not burning was just never an option.”  
  
The ranger winced.  
  
“Sunscreen?”  
  
Steve shrugged resignedly.  
  
“I think SPF 50 is the only reason I'm still alive and not an unidentifiable black smudge somewhere by the trailside.”  
  
“Sounds rough.”  
  
“It's fine, I spend most of my time indoors anyway. But you probably guessed that, being a fan and all. Um.”  
  
“Oh, it's Bucky. Bucky Barnes.”  
  
They shook hands and Bucky laughed at the disbelieving look Steve couldn't quite help because, seriously, _Bucky_.  
  
“I know, I know, sounds like the name of a Golden Age sidekick or something. Possibly a dog on a buddy cop show. But whatever, I'm not expecting a mere _Steven_ to understand the pain of a _James Buchanan_.”  
  
“ _Ow_.”  
  
“I know, right? Way to go, folks. By the way, am I ruining your hike here? Feel free to tell me to fuck off and I'll pick up my pace, leave you to your genuine Into the Wild experience or whatever you've got going on here.”  
  
Steve swallowed about a dozen corny lines about the suddenly and vastly improved scenery and shook his head.  
  
“Truth is, I was getting a bit lonely out here. I mean, I don't think I've ever been so profoundly _alone_ before in my entire life and now that I know what it's like, I'm not sure it's my thing. Don't get me wrong, the Canyon is gorgeous and everything I was expecting, but it's also really...”  
  
“ _Quiet_ , innit?” Bucky finished, smiling knowingly. “Hey, I get that. I'm an Army brat who enlisted straight out of high school, just having more than ten square feet of living space all to myself weirded me out for the first couple of months after I got out.”  
  
“So how did you end up working here? If you don't mind me asking, of course.”  
  
“Sure. You want the long version or the short version?”  
  
“Um, whichever you feel like telling?” _I want to know everything about you_ , Steve thought, and then he was quietly and intensely appalled by himself. “I've got all the time in the world.”  
  
Bucky smiled at him as if he knew exactly what Steve had meant, and Steve was suddenly grateful for the fact that he was physically incapable of getting redder in the face than he already was.  
  
“Yeah, the Canyon's not going anywhere. Right, so I just told you I enlisted straight out of high school. Not really out of patriotism or anything. I just didn't really know what to do with myself and the Army seemed like the most obvious choice. You know, following in my dad's footsteps and all that. And it was fine, it was a job I was fairly good at for the next four years. Nothing terribly exciting so I'll spare you the details, but long story short I got a little bit blown up in Iraq.”  
  
“Jesus.” Steve boggled at him. “What do you mean, a _little bit blown up_?”  
  
“I'm alive and well, right?” Bucky grinned. “So, not nearly as blown up as I could've been. But I got messed up enough that they sent me home. My left arm was touch and go for a while, now it just looks kind of gross. Anyway, I was at the hospital for a while and that's where I had my embarrassing Lifetime movie moment—no, really, manly tears were shed, you don't even want to know. I was like, what the _hell_ am I doing with my life? Getting blown up in some bullshit war I don't even believe in when I could be doing, well, pretty much _anything else_?  
  
So right then and there I decided I was going to see all the pretty shit I never had the opportunity to see while my dad was moving us all around the States, from one base to the next. Physical therapy etcetera etcetera—seriously, it was painful and boring, let's leave it at that—and then I was finally free to go, so I went. Baby sister wanted me to stay with her up at Berkeley, bless her, but I was like, Becky, the fact that I survived getting my arm nearly torn off by an IED doesn't mean I'm prepared to room with three philosophy majors and twelve cats.  
  
So I rented a car and came straight here, because it was the closest national park and I figured I'd work my way east or something. Except I got kind of stuck here. Okay, it wasn't quite that simple, I had to go back to school and then get training and more training, but bottom line is, I got totally hooked when I first came out here. It was love at first sight. And that's about it.”  
  
“That's quite the story,” Steve said, because he couldn't really think of anything else to say.  
  
“So what about you?”  
  
“I just... draw comic books? Which you already know?”  
  
Bucky shook his head and nudged Steve's arm with his elbow.  
  
“Come on, man, indoorsy types like you don't just up and decide to hike the Grand Canyon. There's _gotta_ be a story there.”  
  
“I suppose you're right, though it's really not much of a story. No explosions and not so heavy on the manly tears. Well. _Maybe_ there was a single manly tear involved but I'll deny it to the grave.”  
  
“Your secret is safe with me,” Bucky said solemnly.  
  
“Right. So. Full disclosure: I broke up with Agent Carter.”  
  
“You broke up with the protagonist of your series.”  
  
Steve laughed at the skeptical and vaguely concerned look Bucky was giving him.  
  
“I broke up with the woman she's based on, to be precise.”  
  
“Wait, holy shit, are you telling me that Agent Carter _actually exists_? Like, in 3D, living and breathing, walking among us mere mortals?”  
  
“The more you know, right? Wait.” Steve fumbled around in his pack for his phone. When he found it, he pulled up the most recent picture of Peggy he had—a selfie she'd sent him three weeks ago of her new haircut; a longish bob with soft bouncy waves just brushing her shoulders. It suited her, but then again, he doubted she could be anything less than stunning no matter what she wore or what she did with her hair.  
  
“Oh my god, it's really her,” Bucky whispered reverently. “This is like learning Jesus was real.”  
  
“Jesus _was_ real, Bucky.”  
  
“Gimme a break, my mind's completely blown here.”  
  
“Yeah, she has that effect on people.”  
  
Bucky handed his phone back.  
  
“So you broke up with _the_ Agent Carter.”  
  
“I don't have a big dramatic breakup story to tell, if that's what you're fishing for. It was just...” Steve sighed. “We've been friends for like, ten years or so. We tried dating. It was a stupid idea.”  
  
“What, like a mutual friend zone thing?”  
  
“Kind of? We just don't love each other that way, you know, the _right_ way to build a relationship on. We probably never should've messed with what we had, but what's done is done. We broke up, I needed to get out of New York and my head for a while, I could afford to take a couple weeks off, and that's it.”  
  
“Huh,” Bucky said. “So what, you're having some kind of quarter life crisis now?”  
  
“God, I hope I don't live up to a hundred and twenty-eight. Sounds like a drag. But yeah, I guess I'm having a bit of a crisis of some kind.”  
  
“And? Is the hike helping?”  
  
Steve looked at the trail before them with it's sparse greenery and unimaginably old rock formations, and then he chanced a glance at Bucky who was looking right back at him, curious and bright-eyed and so profoundly _different_ from anyone else in Steve's life. There was some light scarring on his neck, Steve noticed now; pale silvery lines crisscrossing smooth tan skin, and Steve couldn't imagine—even with his own dumb health problems and numerous hospital visits over the years, he couldn't even _begin_ to imagine what he'd been through, what _really_ lived under the good humor and the cheerful self-deprecation so similar to yet so different from his own. The only thing he knew was that he wanted to find out.  
  
“I'm still waiting for a eureka moment or an emotional breakthrough or something. Right now, I'm mostly just hungry and thirsty and sweaty, and my feet are killing me,” Steve admitted with a rueful shrug.  
  
Bucky threw his head back and laughed—a warm, gleeful sound.  
  
“Tell you what, city boy. Stick with me through my patrol and I'll take you to the station. You can go right back to your soul-searching after a decent dinner, if that's still what you need.”

Somehow, Steve doubted it would be.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey.”  
  
“Steve, we have a problem.”  
  
Steve couldn't even imagine what this problem could possibly be, but Bucky sounded so serious he inadvertently sat straighter up in his chair.  
  
“I'm going to ask you a question and I need you to be honest with me,” Bucky went on.  
  
Steve swallowed and nodded, before realizing how pointless that was since they were on the phone.  
  
“Okay, shoot.”  
  
“ _Did_ you or did you _not_.”  
  
Bucky paused dramatically.  
  
“Yes?” Steve prompted, his heart in his throat.  
  
“Draw a certain upcoming issue of Batman and Robin?”  
  
“Oh my god.”  
  
“You _know_ who the new Robin is, don't you, you sneaky little shit.”  
  
“Oh my _god_.”  
  
“You've been listening to me theorize for the past three months, and all this time you knew _damn well_ who it was,” Bucky accused.  
  
Steve couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry.  
  
“You're the most ridiculous person I know, I hope you know that. Jesus, Bucky, you scared the crap out of me.”  
  
Bucky laughed. The sound wasn't quite the same over the line, but it was what Steve had for now. Not even close to what he _really_ wanted, but still immeasurably better than nothing.  
  
“Why, what did you think I was going to say?”  
  
“I— ” Steve said. He had no idea how to finish that sentence. What _had_ he been expecting?  
  
“You got a guilty conscience, Rogers? Some skeletons in the closet I should know about?”  
  
“What? No!”  
  
“You know, that's exactly what someone with a skeleton in his closet would say.”  
  
“I'm just paranoid, okay? I mean, a little bit. A healthy kind of paranoia.”  
  
“Paranoia's never healthy, Steve. That's kind of the whole point of having a whole 'nother fancy Greek word for 'baseless fear'.”  
  
“Isn't it Latin?”  
  
Bucky snorted. “Whatever. Point is, you need to chill, man. Don't be some kind of mad artist cliché. That'd be just sad.”  
  
“I'll try. I just thought you were... whatever.”  
  
“Hey, no, out with it now.”  
  
“It's stupid,” Steve muttered, shrugging to himself.  
  
The thing about Bucky was, he was always just that little bit sharper than you expected him to be. Not that Steve had ever thought he was unintelligent or anything, but Bucky had this way of seeing through bullshit and getting to the heart of the matter which Steve found simultaneously impressive and _terrifying_.  
  
“Oh, you thought I was breaking up with you,” Bucky was saying now, much to Steve's horror.  
  
“ _No_ , of course I didn't.”  
  
“Dude, you totally did. It's okay.”  
  
Steve blinked. “It is? I mean...” There really wasn't a good way to put this. “Don't take this the wrong way, but I wasn't aware there was anything _to_ break up.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
Steve winced. Yeah, that sounded just as horrible out loud as it had in his mind.  
  
“I mean, we've been talking for months and I really like it, I really like _you_ and I would _love_ it if we were heading in the direction of something which could be broken up—”  
  
“ _What._ ”  
  
“Geez, you _know_ what I'm trying to say here.”  
  
“Yeah, I do, but listening to you struggle with it is hilarious,” Bucky admitted, sounding delighted.  
  
“Okay, I take it all back. You're a sadistic asshole, no one in their right mind would want to date you.”  
  
“Luckily, we _just_ established that you're a paranoid weirdo with probable skeletons in his closet.”  
  
“Just let the skeletons go already, there's nothing but Natasha's ski gear in my closet.”  
  
“ _Aw_ , you're _that_ guy.”  
  
“ _Which_ guy?”  
  
“The one who stores his friends' crap for years because of his pathological inability to say no.”  
  
“Wow, okay, here's one for you now: _no_ , I'm definitely not.”  
  
“Keep telling yourself that, it's adorable.”  
  
“I really have no idea why I keep talking to you.”  
  
“Course you do,” Bucky murmured in this low, intimate voice, a complete 180 from their light banter, and that was another thing about Bucky: he could go from screwing with you to dead serious and back again in a heartbeat.  
  
“We haven't even— ”  
  
“We will.”  
  
“You don't even know what I— ”  
  
“I do.”  
  
“God, that's annoying.”  
  
“I know,” Bucky said smugly. “Patience, young grasshopper.”  
  
“I'm, what, four years older than you?”  
  
“And yet unable to say the word S-E-X without combusting on the spot. My offer still stands, you know.”  
  
Steve cleared his throat, for once glad they weren't even in the same state. He really didn't need Bucky to see his face right now.

“Which offer would that be?”  
  
“The phone sex one.”  
  
“Um, thanks but no, thanks.”  
  
“You're such an innocent.”  
  
“I'm really, _really_ not, believe me. I'm just not a big talker, or a particularly good one, if that wasn't obvious. It's just... awkward.”  
  
“That's fine. You do realize you're sorta talking yourself up here, right?”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“I mean I'm expecting the real deal to be _really_ something, after all this talk about how much better you are at doing things as opposed to just talking about them.”  
  
“Oh god.”  
  
Bucky laughed at him, though not in a mean way.  
  
“Chill, Steve, it's gonna be fine. Better than fine, don't you worry.”  
  
“Okay, how could you _possibly_ know that.”  
  
“It's basic math, really. We like each other, I'm good at sex, and you're a confirmed artist stereotype, meaning you gotta be a freak in the sheets.”  
  
“I really don't think it works like that.”  
  
“Trust me, it does. It's a sexquation. The numbers don't lie.”  
  
“That's not even a _word_.”  
  
“I just said it so it's totally a word. Seriously, man, you need to get out more.”  
  
“Sorry, I must have missed out on some more recent high school slang terms while I was busy drawing a _certain_ Batman and Robin issue.”  
  
“Are you _really_ gonna drag Robin into this? That's playing dirty, Rogers. I must admit, I'm kinda impressed.”  
  
“Thank you,” Steve said with all the mock-solemnity he could muster. “By the way, the new Robin is— ”  
  
He laughed as Bucky promptly hung up on him, only to text him within the same minute.

  
  
> _thats a dangerous line ur about 2 x rogers_  
  
> _we'll never have all that awesome sex if u spoil b &r 4 me_

  
  
Ridiculous. He was completely ridiculous.  
  
Steve was such a goner.


End file.
